SOUTHPORT, England – Seven years ago this week, about 32 miles up the Lancashire Coast from Royal Birkdale, David Duval won the 2001 British Open.

Winning that first major championship was a come-to-Jesus moment that was supposed to define Duval’s career, leave him drunk with self-satisfaction and propel him to even greater heights in his career.

None of those things occurred. Not even close, in fact.

“Is this all there is?” Duval often found himself asking aloud after that British Open win.

For a litany of reasons that included physical ailments such as back problems and vertigo as well as a flawed swing that he somehow won with at Royal Lytham that year, Duval and his game proceeded to fall harder and faster than perhaps any great player in golf history.

That fall left Duval, who hasn’t won a tournament since that Open victory, ranked 1,087th in the World Golf Rankings when he arrived here this week.

That hardly matters to him, as evidenced by where he’s positioned himself entering weekend play – a mere three shots out of the lead at 2-over par after shooting 69 yesterday.

“He’s back,” said Puggy Blackmon, Duval’s long-time coach who mentored him all the way back to his Georgia Tech days in college.

Blackmon was standing outside the scorer’s trailer after Duval’s second round yesterday and he couldn’t have been prouder about what’s going on with his long-time student.

And Blackmon knows what kind of historic impact a Norman win would provide.

“This would be the greatest comeback in golf history,” Blackmon said. “

As someone who’s covered Duval throughout his prime, I can back Blackmon’s bold words.

I remember the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, where Duval’s score was so far over par (well into the 20s) late in his second round the manual scoreboard operators stopped posting his score out of both pity and respect for him.

I remember following Duval around at the 2003 British Open at Royal St. Georges during his Wednesday practice round as he was grinding to get better with long hours on the range then playing two separate practice rounds only to shoot 83-78 to miss the cut by the length of the nearby English Channel.

There were a lot of those moments of ignominy along the way for Duval, which makes this resurgence all the more rewarding.

Duval, 36, has really been on the comeback trail for about a year and a half with Blackmon. But it’s been his union to wife Susie and her four children that has changed Duval’s outlook on life most.

When Duval won at Royal Lytham he was a lonely man with no one to share that Claret Jug with.

“He’s just got a super family,” Blackmon said. “I’ve never seen him happier. He’s playing because he wants to play. I’ve never seen David like this. He’s just a total human being now.”

Before, he presented himself as this aloof robot behind those wrap-around glasses. Now, he’s a human who bleeds like the rest of us.

“I probably don’t live it and die with it like I may have back then, but I also haven’t sought a return to be mediocre,” Duval said. “I know what greatness is about and I know what it takes to have greatness and I won’t settle for mediocrity.

“I’ve taken the long rout and hard rout and try to get back to greatness and that story is yet to be told as to whether I can get back to that point or not but that’s what I strive for.”

Blackmon recalled a conversation he had with a writer when he reunited with Duval that appalled him. The writer asked him, “What are you doing? You’d be smarter to buy a lottery ticket than to work with this guy.”